Coronavirus pandemic: Is coronavirus a pandemic yet?

The COVID-19 outbreak is the latest form of coronavirus to spread across the world, and thousands of new coronavirus cases are being confirmed around the world every day. Almost 4,000 people diagnosed with the illness have died, and more than 110,000 people have been infected as of March 9.

Of the confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide, 80,735 have been confirmed in China.

Italy has suffered the worst outbreak in Europe with 9,172 cases reported, and 7,478 cases have been confirmed in South Korea.

In the UK 319 people have been diagnosed with the virus, and five people have died.

With coronavirus spreading rapidly across the world, at what point does the virus become a pandemic?

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What is a pandemic?

There is not a set definition in place for defining a pandemic.

However, an outbreak usually becomes a pandemic when there is sustained person-to-person transmission of the disease around the world.

An epidemic is defined as the rapid spread of an infectious disease through a community at any particular time.

Is coronavirus a pandemic yet?

The virus SARS-COV2, which causes COVID-19, has not yet been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

However, this does not mean the virus does not have pandemic potential.

Dr Nathalie MacDermott, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer at King’s College London, has significant experience in medical response to epidemic situations in Africa and Asia.

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Dr MacDermott told Express.co.uk we are “not yet at the stage” of defining coronavirus as a pandemic.

She added: “Currently we are in the middle of an epidemic situation affecting several countries with widespread dissemination of cases to other countries.

“We are not yet at the stage where this would be defined as a pandemic, but SARS-COV2 has pandemic potential and there is a risk this could develop into a pandemic.”

The WHO nor the UK Government are calling coronavirus a pandemic, but the WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has acknowledged the virus “absolutely” has potential to become a pandemic.

But news organisations such as CNN, along with a number of public health experts, are arguing the virus has already become a pandemic.

The coronavirus outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province, in December 2019.

Since the first case was confirmed, the vast majority of cases have continued to be recorded in the region.

However over recent weeks, other countries have started to report an increased number of cases, and the numbers are rising rapidly.

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